This invention relates generally to drill pipe and more particularly to flexible drill pipe.
A large majority of down-the-hole rotary drilling machines used in applications such as water well, shallow oil and gas, blast hole, exploration and utility tunnel drilling currently utilize the use of long, straight sections of drilling pipe connected to the drilling device to perform the drilling process. Most drilled holes are deep enough to require the use of several and often many sections of drill pipe which are each inserted and removed from the drill string frequently. The conventional methods of handling these sections of drill pipe are cumbersome, labor intensive and costly.
The foregoing illustrates limitations known to exist in present drill pipe applications. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations set forth above. Accordingly, a suitable alternative is provided including features more fully disclosed hereinafter.